Kai Matsumiya reopens at 264 Canal Street this September. The new location quadruples the floor plan of our former space at 153 ½ Stanton Street. The goal of expansion was not to abide by the dubious prospect that “bigger is always better,” but by the conviction that doing so allows Kai Matsumiya’s artists greater range of vision and possibility.

I founded the gallery in 2014 with the belief that the contemporary art gallery has not caught up to the realities of art, and how art lives and breathes at its own pace and on its own terms. For these years we have asserted that experimentation ought to be celebrated for the purpose of encouraging failure; failure promotes possibilities, opportunities, and a defense of dignity.

Our purpose has been to actualize the spirit, intent, and world views of our artists while we engage, encourage, and tease our audiences, with yet a tacit acknowledgement how politics often creep into what we observe or experience in our everyday lives. We favor artists who question even the most fundamental expectations that art or society has for us, more so than meeting such expectations. We actively avoid art that is treated as ideological, or as gauntlets thrown down by a market bent toward value and prestige. At the very least, the gallery hopes to engage artworks as propositions for discussion, which stir enjoyment in our senses and in our capacity to ask questions about what we see.

Our artists have been recognized by a wonderful community of collectors, curators, writers, artists and art lovers across NYC and from around the world. Since 2019, we’ve received support in the form of acquisitions and solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, Tate Modern, Kunsthalle Basel, Swiss Institute, Venice Biennale, Museum of Modern Art (New York), Guggenheim Museum, KW Institute, Hammer Museum, ICA (Los Angeles), and Stedelijk Museum, among others.